Thunderbird:Future of Thunderbird

The Future of Thunderbird

Mozilla has been supporting Thunderbird as a product since the beginning
of the Foundation. The result is a good, solid product that provides an
open alternative for desktop mail. However, the Thunderbird effort is
dwarfed by the enormous energy and community focused on the web, Firefox
and the ecosystem around it. As a result, Mozilla doesn’t support
Thunderbird as much as we do browsing and Firefox and we don’t expect
this to change in the foreseeable future. We are convinced that our
current focus – delivering the web, mostly through browsing and related
services – is the correct priority. At the same time, the Thunderbird
team is extremely dedicated and competent, and we all want to see them
do as much as possible with Thunderbird.

We have concluded that we should find a new organizational approach for
Thunderbird; one that allows the Thunderbird community to determine its
own destiny.

Mozilla is exploring the options for an organization specifically
focused on serving Thunderbird users. A separate organization focused on
Thunderbird will both be able to move independently and will need to do
so to deepen community and user involvement. We’re not yet sure what
this organization will look like. We’ve thought about a few different
options. I’ve described them below. If you’ve got a different idea
please let us know.

Option 1. Create a new non-profit organization analogous to the Mozilla
Foundation – the Thunderbird Foundation. If it turns out Thunderbird
generates a revenue model from the product as Firefox does, then the
Thunderbird Foundation could follow the Mozilla Foundation model and
create a subsidiary.

This model probably offers the maximum independence for Thunderbird. But
it is also the most organizationally complex. There is lots of overhead
to create a new foundation, find board members, recreate the
administrative load. When we started the Mozilla Foundation Mitch Kapor,
our-ten business development lead and I spent a bunch of time on this
work. The current Thunderbird developers don’t have this level of
business assistance. If there is revenue that requires a subsidiary then
the overhead goes up even further. There is serious concern that this
will detract from serving Thunderbird users, since the core Thunderbird
team is small and developer-focused.

Option 2. Create a new subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation for
Thunderbird. This has less overhead, although it still requires a new
company that serves the mission of the Mozilla Foundation. In this case
the Foundation board and personel would remain responsible for
Thunderbird. Thunderbird would continue to need to be balanced and
prioritized with Mozilla's focus on delivering the web, mostly through
browsing and related services. As a result the Thunderbird team may
still end up with less focus and less flexibility.

Option 3. Thunderbird is released as a community project much like
SeaMonkey, and a small independent services and consulting company is
formed by the Thunderbird developers to continue development and care
for Thunderbird users. Many open source projects use this model, it
could be simpler and more effective than a Mozilla Foundation
subsidiary. However, creating this as a non-profit would be extremely
difficult. Running a services company as an independent taxable company
is the simplest operational answer. We would need to figure out how such
a company relates to the Thunderbird product itself. What’s the best way
for such a company to release a product? How does that relate to the
community project that stays within the Mozilla Foundation?

We don’t know the best answer yet. And we don’t expect to without a
broad public discussion, which we hope this message will trigger. Today
someone suggested to me that perhaps there is another foundation that
might be a good home for Thunderbird. I hadn’t thought of this but it’s
worth considering.

If you’ve got thoughts or – even better – want to get involved, please
let us know by adding your comments to the discussion page.